1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to cargo handling systems intended for use in loading stacks of cargo units from a dock into the cargo hold of a ship, truck or rail car.
2. SUMMARY OF THE PRIOR ART
There have been many devices and methods used in loading cargo into the holds of deep water vessels and other hollow vehicles. Loads consisting of discrete cargo units are often handled by means of a cargo net or by means of large portable containers. The handling of a collection of discrete cargo units has presented a particular problem because of the time-consuming manual labor required for loading and unloading the various transport apparatus used for conveying a bulk of such cargo units between a dock and a ship for example. Prior art methods and apparatuses for handling discrete cargo units generally involves the necessity of leaving bulky, space wasting wooden pallets beneath each stack of cargo units during such transfer. Such lost space can usually only be conserved by manually transferring from the pallet into the transport vehicle.
A good example of discrete cargo units is bags of granular or powdered materials, such as flour, grain or chemicals. Obviously, the bags must be gently handled in their transport into the hold of a vessel to avoid breakage of the bag and spillage of the contents. While a stack of such bags can be readily assembled on a pallet, a real problem arises when it is desired to transport the stack into the hold of the vessel without concurrently transporting the pallet. Thus, in the past, resort was generally made to the use of stevedores and cargo nets containing a stack of such bags. Stevedores must manually either remove the bags from the cargo net and stack them in the ship hold, or reassemble the bags on a pallet for transport to a remote section of the hold.
The same problem arises in the loading of discrete cargo units onto trucks and rail cars. Discrete cargo units are normally loaded into a truck in serial fashion, unless a pallet remains under the stack. Thus, serial loading requires an excessive amount of time and labor.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for loading discrete cargo units onto a ship, truck or other vehicle, without a pallet so that the vehicle is filled to capacity in a series of one or more simple mechanized loading maneuvers.